


Unwanted Help

by Annilie



Category: Cirque du Freak | The Saga of Darren Shan - Darren Shan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28260258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annilie/pseuds/Annilie
Summary: Do or don't vampires get ill? What if they do? And what if you are only a half vampire and not allowed to help?
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

I don't own any of the characters!

Darren returned to Evra's tent after a busy day.

It had been a very good day, though.  
There had been very much attention for the show. Mr Crepsley had allowed Darren to do a great deal of the act again and he had done so with everything he had. Before the show, as always there had been the usual chores to do too. When Evra came in, Darren turned on his side into his hammock. He doubted Evra would buy it but he really wasn't up for a chat or a tickle fight or something. It had been a tough day and the next evening Mr Crepsley would await him for another training session. He better used all the time he could spare to sleep. Or at least to rest.

He noticed Evra walking around the tent, doing stuff and just when he thought his friend wouldn't bother to look at him, he heard Evra's steps coming nearer to his part of the tent.

He kept silent.

"Darren?"

Darren wondered at the slightly worried undertone in his friends voice. He considered it a bit harsh to ignore Evra since he took it his friend knew he was awake. He turned around.

"Hey there", he said with a sheepish smile.

"Hello. Did I wake you?"

"No. " Darren sat up. "Just resting."

Evra smiled. "I take it you are not up to helping me, then?"

"Helping?"

Evra waved towards the cushons where his snake had apparently curled up. "I have the feeling she hasn't been completely well and I'd liked to give her a nice bath."

Darren sighed. He had helped more than once with bathing that snake. He was used to touching it and the animal seemed to have accepted him but he felt more like sleeping for the moment. Maybe Mr Crepsley's blood was beginning to take his toll on him. He sneaked a short look through the tent entrance and saw that it wouldn't be long before dawn.

"I take it it can't wait a couple of hours?"

Evra followed Darren's gaze to the tent entrance and smiled again. "Never mind. I'll manage."

Darren felt slightly guilty to let his friend down. He turned around again to not have to watch.

It didn't take long for sleep to claim him but he was disturbed out of his slumber by the sound of someone coughing. He opened his eyes, feeling irritated. He looked at Evra and the snake, but it had sounded too human to have come from the possibly ill animal. Evra was looking at the tent entrance again and their eyes met.

The coughing was followed by a curse. Both boys looked up at the voice which spoke next: "No, Harkat. I will not have Darren to know."

However hoarse, Darren recognised the voice as his mentor's.

"Really Larten, grow up", came the voice of Truska.  
Darren could perfectly picture the disturbed face of his mentor at being called back like that when the older vampire groaned: "Having her knowing is the very last thing I need."

"I heard that, Larten", Truska said, "You think Darren wont know when he hears you coughing like that? On this moment he's like, I dont know, three feet away?"

Larten growled. "He's still under the impression vampires don't get ill easily. All I need is a good day of sleep and some blood. Besides, Darren must be asleep by now."

Darren could imagine Truska's sceptical look. She cared about Mr Crepsley very dearly. If he had gotten ill in some way, she wouldn't be off his back before he was well again. And judging that cough of his, he wasn't exactly well now.

Darren turned to Evra who was still onto washing his snake. When Crepsley started to cough again he turned to Darren. Darren had to suppress the urge to run outside, the uneasy feeling in his stomach growing.

"Larten, please." Truska sounded sincerely worried now. "You should really take care of that."

Harkat added something in agreement that Darren and Evra couldn't understand.

"All right. You are right", Mr Crepsley finally gave in, "I have no choice anyway if I want this to be over for Darren learns."

"Now we're talking. Harkat and I will cover for you. And I am sure Evra will take care of Darren."

"Don't count on it", Mr Crepsley mumbled, but the hoarseness of his voice destroyed any impact the words could possibly have.

"Indeed, you better don't", Darren muttered, looking dangerously at Evra.

The snakeboy lifted his arms in the air. "Leave me out of it."

Darren huffed. He was not letting Mr Crepsley to shut him out. He could understand his mentor didn't want everyone to know and fussing around when he was ill.  
After all, he had his reputation to be the strong and unmovable vampire he gave the general appearance to be. Darren smiled inwardly. He would act the same way, if he was ill. But as assistant, it was to him to correct his master whenever he acted wrongly. And Mr Crepsley should concentrate on doing whatever he deemed best to get better instead of hiding his condition.

As if he had read Darren's thoughts, Evra stated: "He probably just caught a cold or something."

Darren looked at him and Evra again made a gesture of surrender. "Could be."

"Vampires don't catch colds."

"And who says that? Writers of vampire books? How should they know? In their eyes, you vampires are just an invention of fantasy. And to make their villains, or heroes, more impressive, they make them invulnerable. Didn't Crepsley tell you your race is quite different from what humans make of it?"

"Mr Crepsley told me himself", Darren said stubbornly.

"He wants being a vampire to look better than it is."

Darren glared at him.

"I'm sorry Darren. But let us look at it objectively. Crepsley knows you are still angry at him for turning you into a vampire. No, don't deny it. You are. Even if you do not longer want to kill him for it. He's not stupid. And as difficult as it is for you to believe, he's not a cruel, insensitive being without a conscience."

Darren wanted to interrupt Evra but his friend lifted his hand. "Let me finish this, please. You were, and still are, angry with him. And unhappy."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"And so he wants to spare you, in his own way. Maybe he wants to let you believe that as a half-vampire, you are stronger and your body has a much stronger resistance than it had when completely human."

"I am. However, at this moment I might be happier with a chance to die rather sooner than later, not one to survival."

"That's not true and you know it.

Evra was right. He knew it. He had started to accept and even like his life as a vampire, in spite he still missed his family. But he loved being at the Cirque and being around his friends. And even more so for having Mr Crepsley around. Hearing him to be ill disturbed him and not only because he had thought vampires didn't get ill.

"I'm sure it will not come as far as that, Darren." Evra said softly. "You heard what Crepsley said. A day of sleep and a portion of blood and before you know it, he will be torturing you again on training."

Darren laughed. He would give much to skip a training but even on his dying day, Crepsley wouldn't stop for a moment.

Evra had returned to his snake, which he started to dry and Darren hadn't been surprised if he had started to sing a lullaby for it. If he did, however, Darren didn't hear it anymore.

(To be continued - I hope you had a nice time reading. Please, review. Thank you! :) )


	2. Chapter 2

Truska was true to her word. There was not one moment Darren got the chance to go and check upon his mentor.

Clearly most of the other members of the Cirque were in to it too, for whatever he did, for whoever, he was kept busy from morning till evening with the solid promise of more work the other day, which was as good as saying: "You better go to sleep, immediately."

Evra was not in it, as far as Darren dared to judge. But one never knew.

At the evening of the third day, Darren finally came to action. He waited for his mentor or someone else to get him to come to Mr Crepsley's van but none came. At midnight, Darren left Evra's tent and went to the van himself. There was no movement inside yet, which was strange for it was hours after sunset already.

What Darren didn't know was Mr Tall was also still awake. In his own tent, the Cirque Director sat in a chair and followed every thought of the youngest member of the crew. A smile crept over the man's face when he meant to recognise irritation into the boy.   
He wasn't going to meddle between the vampires. Larten would have to screw up his courage on his own to lay down his pride and to face Darren.

Darren stood before the van, unsure what to do. He could go in but something told him that wouldn't be appreciated, even if there was nothing that has to be hidden from him.   
Returning to Evra's tent and letting things the way they were, wasn't an option either for he wouldn't been able to sleep anymore before he knew what was going on.

Finally he took the decision to go in. But when he wanted to push the handle of the door, he was kept back. The door didn't move an inch. Darren glared at the door and slapped it.

"Don't do that!"

Darren jumped and whirled around. It had been no more than a whisper but like his slapping on the door the words sounded hellish in the silent darkness.

Evra stood behind him.

"Idiot! You scared me out of my skin."

"You have a bad conscience."

"No I don't."

"Are you out of your mind? Breaking into Crepsley's van while he might be awake whereas you know he wants you to leave him alone! You must be suicidal. Especially when you wake him up banging on the door like that."

"I might." It sounded rather indifferently.

Evra became agitated. Or at least that was the impression Darren got from his voice and his fastening breathing.

"You don't have to come with me", he stated.

"Hell, I shouldn't be here at all", Evra countered.

"But you are. I suppose because you want to stop me from making a big mistake and letting Crepsley destroying the whole place.

"Something like that, yes."

Evra sighed. He understood this wasn't going to work. "At least be careful", he urged, "No one knows what he 's capable of in a fit of rage, especially when he is ill."

"Vampires don't get ill. Surely not vampire's the likes of him."

"How can you be sure? You don't know what he was like in his former days, human or vampire."

Darren nodded impatiently.

"Ok, all wisdom aside, are we going in or not?"

"Oh, you are going in, I'm sure. But count me out."

"All right. You're right. You don't have to do this."

"I'll be right here outside."

Mr Tall was highly amused rather than upset when he felt Darrens growing excitement.

Darren put his ear against the door of the van to make sure there was no movement inside.

Mr Tall in the meantime was doing the same thing mentally. He felt Larten's mind. It was awake, mulling over things but at the same time it seemed to be... hazy. Far away.

Darren closed his eyes and let his other senses take over. He scanned the air for strange odeurs. Smells that shouldn't be here. There weren't.

"Darren."

Evra was motioning to the little window, locked with a curtain. The curtain was raped or so it seemed and at a closer look Darren saw the glass was broken.   
It didn't seem like Crepsley at all to let such damage unrepaired. Especially since the glass locked out warmth and light. Or was he so ill he had never bothered? No, he had been well enough the other night. But what was going on, then? If he could only see him, talk to him. It was clear Crepsley didn't want him to see him else he wouldn't avoid him like this.

Darren peered through the window. It was dark inside. His vampire eyes were strong enough however to make out the form of the object that was lying on the floor: a wooden stake.

Darren stumbled back, terrified. Evra ran towards him, just in time to support him. "What is it?", he asked, "What did you see?"

Darren couldn't answer. His heart was racing and he was panting. The only thing he could say was: "He isn't there."

Mr Tall felt the terror in Darren's mind and heart. He understood it too.

What he didn't understand however was what a stake was doing in the van of Larten Crepsley.

To be continued - Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

As it was, the presence of the stake was explained easily enough.

When Darren answered what felt like an official summons from Mr Tall, he found Harkat and Truska to be present as well as a third visitor.

Mr Tall said: “Ah, Darren, please come in, do sit down I believe you know who Seba is.”

Darren did indeed know Mr Crepsley’s maker, mentor and savior in some way. His presence here, just now, made Darren suspicious, however.

The old vampire nodded, a small but kind smile playing on his lips.

Probably reading his mind, Mr Tall spoke: “I will explain later what the purpose of Seba’s visit is, Darren. I have to share some rather bad news. But first let me reassure no horrible drama had come to Larten.”

At this, Truska looked at Darren before filling one of the cups which were on the table with hot coco and offering it to him.  
Darren felt confused by her partly accusing stare. He was grateful Mr Tall went straight to the point, even being left exposed and embarrassed at being found out spying.

“The stake you saw in Larten’s van was left there by Truska. She and Harkat had been closest to Larten’s van when he started to cry out last evening, apparently caught in a nightmare, which in turn, probably was fueled by his rising fever. They couldn’t get in however so they smashed the window, with the stake, to gain access. Because it was a rainy day, as you no doubt know, Truska did take the stake inside in stead of simply leaving it outside as you might expect. Once inside, in the darkness, however she got hurt, dropping the stake and forgetting about it.”

Simple as that. Darren felt even more embarrassed about his worrying than the spying itself.

“I shared your uneasiness for a while though,” Mr Tall went on “because of Seba’s request to speak to me and the bad news he brings.” He motioned for the vampire to go on and refilled his cup with chocolat. He looked at Darren but it was Seba who spoke up.

“I believe Larten is in for another case of the vampire flu.”

“Flu...you...say.” Harkat said.

“You think of contamination.” Mr Tall said.

Harkat nodded.

Seba shook his head. “I don’t think there is any immediate danger for you and Truska or any one else. The vampire flu is a very advanced form of the human influenza, but as far as I know only vampires catch it. I can’t be positive you won’t be sick. But if so, it will be no worse than the human flu. As for you, Darren, I’d advise you strongly to stay away from Larten. I can’t estimate the odds in your particular case, at all. I’d say you might be susceptible for the vampire flu, which could be very dangerous and hard on you since you don’t have all the power and strength of a full vampire. On the other hand you are still partly human so maybe the illness flu won’t get to you anyway.”

“In any case, if any of you starts to feel unwell, don’t wait to come to me, or betters till, send someone else and stay inside yourself. I won’t have some flu running around here if it can be avoided.”

Truska and Harkat nodded. Darren did the same but much slower. “How worse could it be?” he whispered.

“Pretty bad. A vampire who catches it, is most probably in to do so again and Larten has had it before, a very long time ago, and a rather bad case of it, too.”

That silenced them all. Seba went on, a bit hastily, Darren thought: “That brings me to the reason I came here, Darren.”

He swallowed. “There’s been unrest, lately in Vampire Mountain. You are well known by now, Darren. Larten has made a big mistake by bleeding you were, and still are, under age. Even while he only made you a half-vampire and he did have a reason to be angry with you. How humiliating as I find it for our race to be used as a kind of disease or physical condition to put on someone as a punishment.”

Mr Tall smiled at that.

“Of course you know all that. The new, bad, part is the next. There have been so many bleedings lately the Princes get uneasy. Of course the Mountain still can take the growing numbers of young vampires but it is noticed there has been many sickness among them, mostly by neglect by their makers who are in search of love or company and after a time they get bored of them. You understand the poor fledglings, left to their own devices, don’t last long. Some of those who do, become useless and dangerous for the whole tribe. The chance of exposure becomes greater, even if we speak. Of course that is only the beginning. Outbreaks of vampire flu and other troubles would only add to the nervousness.”

“I can understand that”, Truska said. Harkat made a little noise of agreement.

“There’s been a strong vote for severe diminishing of the tribe. Some even call for the direct execution of every fledgling, made less than a year from now.”

Darren had paled even more, he was sure.

“I’m concerned for you, Darren. You are one of us for more than a year by far now but you’re still only a half-vampire. However, I’m not sure at all how the angry folks would react if they know about Larten’s illness.

Darren frowned.

“You have Larten’s blood, Darren. In all honesty, since that blood is mine I can tell you there’s nothing wrong with it, but since Larten got the flu all this time ago, it is proved the blood is not as healthy in him as it was in me. And it is that same blood he gave to you.”

Darren paled still more while he suddenly fully understood what the older vampire was getting at. He was going to die. He was going to be murdered by a group of executioners who wanted to purify the tribe and to dump the little, unimportant ends of the cloth.  
They found him a anomaly, a mistake of Mr Crespely and he, Darren, would pay the price for that mistake with... with what? His life? Maybe, half a life, in that case.

“Unblood me? ” Darren asked. He was sure the little blood that was still in his body rushed out of his face. Truska looked up at him, her concerned look already in place on her pretty features.

“No, Darren.” Mr Tall said, his voice serene and soothing. “That’s what Seba is here for.”

“Exactly, Darren. I’d do anything to spare you and Larten from any harm or blame.”

“What do you mean?” Darren asked, suspiciously.

“I’d like to do an experiment, Darren."

"What experiment?"

"If things take a turn for the worst, we should be prepared. You will be one of the first and most wanted for some to lay their hands on. Others will claim that Larten neglected you if you get sick with the vampire flu, to weak to fight it off but enough of a vampire to catch it in the first place. Any excuse will be good enough. Until no excuse will be needed anymore. I want to protect both you and Larten from this. The incriminating thing is Larten's blood inside you. Therefore the only thing to do is to remove it. But that could bring you in a fatal position, unless it's replaced."

"Replaced?" Darren asked with mounting fear for he felt he was not going to like what followed at all.

"I'd like to say I could simply bleed you again to make you a full vampire, Darren , but I'm afraid it might not be as simple as that. Larten had mine blood but like I stated before, in him it adapted so it is no longer identical. So there is a chance that if I were to bleed you, both bloodstreams might not agree with each other. For that I'd like to try something almost unheard of: I’d like to try and unblood you, Darren.”

“Unblood me? ” Darren asked. He noticed Truska turning sharply at Seba, her concerned look already in place on her pretty features.

Darren was sure the last of his blood that was still in his body rushed out of his face.

"With Larten's blood gone I can offer you mine entirely..." Seba started to explain

“No.”

“Darren...”

“No.” Without another word or a glance at any of the others Darren stood up and left.

“Darren!” called Truska after him but Mr Tall’s voice in his head overruled it. Think about it, Darren. It’s what Larten would want. Do it for him. For his reputation.

Darren ran back to Evra’s tent, dropping in his hammock, still repeating the words which had almost become a mantra.

"I can’t do it. It can’t be. I can’t. I won’t!"

Evra and his snake both looked up when the distraught and muttering half-vampire stormed in, forcefully slapping aside the tent flap, dropping head first in his hammock.

Evra threw one glance on his snake, which seemed to actually answer the look and went over to Darren.

Darren’s only answer was: “I won’t. I can’t do it.”

“What can you not do?”

Darren lifted his head and looked at him. “I can’t give up Crepsley’s blood.”


End file.
